According to the British historian George Hills, the earliest extant record of Djabal Tarik in its original Arabic script can be found in Abd al-Hakam's History of the Conquest of Spain which was published in 9th century:

After that Tarik went to llyan ( Count Julian ) (see LINK) who was in Septa ( Ceuta ) on the straits. The latter rejoicing at his coming, said, I will bring thee to Andalus. But there was a mountain called the mountain of Tarik ( Djabal Tarik ) between the two landing places, that is, between Septa and Andalus.

As the word Djabal Tarik is a phonetic translation from Arab script into English or Spanish it is not surprising that different authors, historians and translators have all opted for different versions.

In other words, no Gibraltarian need ever again be embarrassed for making the odd spelling mistake. Indeed worse was to come. According to the 17th century Moorish historian al Makkarí, the first Almohad Emir - Abd al Mu'min - put his delusions of grandeur into practice in 1160 and founded the town of Gibraltar. ( see LINK )

He ( Abd al-Mu'min ) landed on Jebal Tariq which from that day was called Jebal-al-Fath and ordered that a strong fortress should be erected on top of it. He traced out the building with his own hand . . . . . . He disembarked on to the Mountain of Victory where he stayed for a few months and constructed on it great palaces and buildings which still exist today . .

And so on and so forth . . . Fewer than for Tarik, but then many of the older historians were unaware of Abd al Mu'min and were therefore never given a chance to give their own spelling version of his City of Victory - or was it the City of the Entrance? Or perhaps 'Conquest'? All of these interpretations have been offered at one time or the other.

However, neither Medinat-al-Fath nor any of its many alternative spellings ever really caught on and by the time the Spaniards began to make inroads into southern Spain the well known corruption of Gibel Tarik (or whatever) into Gibraltar - as pronounced in Spanish - had finally taken permanent hold.

Also according to Geroge Hills, historically the name 'Gibraltar' first made its first official appearance in a Spanish document dated 1310. Hills gives no reference but he may have been referring to Ferdinand IVs letter of patent which was published the year after his successful - if short lived - capture of the Rock from the Moors and in which the word Gibraltar appears several times;

Luckily English authors and historians of the day opted to spell the word the same way - this despite the fact that it is pronounced differently in both languages. This consensus means that there are far fewer options for creative spelling and it is nowadays rare to find the word spelt in any other way than as Gibraltar.

But of course there are bad spellers everywhere and it seems that many mapmakers - amateur or indeed professional - were as guilty of this fault as everybody else. Here are just a few examples:

1600s - Gibartas

Algecira (Affazira) and its Isla Verde is shown as of more importance than Gibraltar - this despite the fact that in the 17th century hardly anybody lived there whereas Gibraltar was already a city with a population of about six thousand souls.